Call of Duty saw massive success with its map packs, zombie expansions, and other add-ons in recent years, but Activision specifically is not drawing straight from its biggest franchise for its other major shooter franchise.
"The long tail on Call of Duty, which is also an incredibly engaging game that people stick around to play for months and months if not years after release is competitive multiplayer," Hirshberg said. "So that’s a different stream of content. You want new maps, you want new challenges, you want new modes to keep that fun." Destiny, on the other hand, is "much more about exploration, it’s much more about missions. It’s much more about leveling up your character and becoming legend, as the tagline says, within that world."
Hirshberg admits both franchises can learn from each other, but cited their differences as a distinct strength. Destiny's social elements, for example, differ greatly. Both Call of Duty and Destiny certainly have their strong competitive modes, but it's the exploration elements Hirshberg mentioned that holds the Destiny audience's attention.
Despite recent controversy, Destiny maintains strong forward momentum and no signs of slowing down. At E3 2015, The Taken King expansion finally received a release date. For more on Destiny, check out IGN's Destiny show, Fireteam Chat. Mitch Dyer is an IGN Editor. Follow him on Twitter if you want.